“Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,”
From Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Ozymandias”

Greetings, dVerse Poets! Welcome to Tuesday Poetics. Today, December 7, 2021, marks the 80th Anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese Imperial Army. Through the Lend Lease program, the US had been helping Great Britain and other allied countries, while officially remaining neutral. The bombing of Pearl Harbor brought the US into the war. There is a memorial museum there now.

Today I want to focus on history, but not necessarily on war. For today’s prompt I would like you to write about a historical artifact. Since we’ve had Sarah’s recent ekphrastic prompt, I’m going to exclude paintings—other than what you might need to see an object or structure. You can write about something as small as a piece of jewelry, a spoon, or an urn, as John Keats did in “Ode on a Grecian Urn,”

or write about the ruins of an ancient monuments, as Percy Shelley did in “Ozymandias.”

Or write about a building, a ship, a house, or a palace as
Thomas Hardy wrote of Hampton Court in “A Spellbound Palace.”

You may write about any object—a family heirloom, a museum piece, a monument, or a palace. The choice is yours, but there must be some link to history and the past. (Or to current controversies over some artifacts held in museums.)There is no length or style requirement. You might also consider Laura’s prompt from last week’s MTB on fragment poetry to write about fragments. 😏

Here’s how to join in:
*Write a poem (in any form) in response to the challenge.
*Enter a link directly to your poem and your name by clicking Mr Linky below and remember to check the little box to accept the use/privacy policy.
*You will find links to other poets and more will join, so check back later to read their poems.
Read and comment on other poets’ work–we all come here to have our poems read.
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